Ambrosio

Ambrosio Cotes
Villena , 1550
Seville , 1603
Composer

Biography

Kapellmeister and composer

Despite some previous doubts about his ancestry, documentation found in the cathedral of Granada in 1965 indicated Cotes as a composer of Hispanic descent and who began his humanistic and musical training in a monastery of Teatins in Yecla (Murcia).

In 1581 he was Kapellmeister of the Capilla Read of Granada, replacing Rodrigo de Ceballos, and occupied the same position years later in the cathedrals of Valencia and Seville. Joan Baptista Comes was among his disciples. Cotes has been considered the introducer and pioneer of the polychoral style in Valencia, although his output has been lost. Among the pieces that have survived, there is a motet on the death of Philip II (Mortus est Philippus Rex, in 7 voices), Lamentacions and Officium defunctorum. According to José López Calo, the finding of four pieces without text by Cotes must be considered as the only example of instrumental church music of the 16th century.



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